Muhammad Haroon (born 8 January 1968) is a former Pakistani

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who is the current coach of the Norwegian national side. A right-handed

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

ner and competent middle-to-lower-order batsman, his playing career included first-class matches for

Lahore Division Lahore Division is an administrative division of Punjab Province, Pakistan. It comprises four Districts - Kasur, Lahore, Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura. The Lahore Division is commanded by a Commissioner to manage the division. Under the Commissio ...

(from 1999 to 2000) and for

Sheikhupura Sheikhupura ( pa, ; ur, ) also known as Qila Sheikhupura, is a city in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. Founded by the Mughal Empire, Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Jehangir in 1607, Sheikhupura is the List of most populous citie ...

(from 2000 to 2002). Holding a level-4 ECB coaching qualification, Haroon was appointed coach of Norway in early 2014, and has since coached the team at several international tournaments.

Playing career

Born in

, Haroon played for Lahore Division at the 1986–87 National Under-19 Championship, and made his grade-II

Quaid-e-Azam Trophy The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition in Pakistan. With few exceptions, it has been staged annually since it was first played during the 1953–54 season. Domestic cricket in Pakistan has undergone many reorganis ...

debut during the 1990–91 season, for the same team.Miscellaneous matches played by Muhammad Haroon
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 2 September 2015. One of his most notable performances in that competition, which did not have first-class status, came in December 1995, when he took 8/138 and 5/153 in the final against the Karachi Greens (match figures of 13/291). During the 1998–99 season, Lahore Division won the grade-II Quaid-e-Azam final against

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

, winning through to the main division. Haroon consequently made his first-class debut during the 1999–00 season,First-class matches played by Muhammad Haroon
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 2 September 2015. scoring a half century, 51 runs, against

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

in his first match. He finished the season having played in only five of a possible nine matches, but scored 519 runs at a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 86.50, the sixth-highest average in the competition. This included two centuries – 107 against

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, and then a career-high 130 against

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. Haroon also made his limited-overs debut during the 1999–00 season, playing two

Tissot Cup The National One Day Cup was the national domestic List A (one-day) cricket competition in Pakistan. Due to frequent reorganisations by the Pakistan Cricket Board, at different times there have been one or more competitions involving teams repre ...

matches and four National Bank Cup matches for Lahore Division.List A matches played by Muhammad Haroon
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 2 September 2015. The following season, however, he switched to playing for the new Sheikhupura team, which was largely a direct replacement for the disbanded Lahore Division. In that season's one-day tournament, he scored a maiden half-century, 64 not out against

Gujranwala Gujranwala ( ur, , label=none; ) is a city and capital of Gujranwala Division located in Pakistan. It is also known as "City of Wrestlers" and is quite famous for its food. It is the 5th most populous city proper after Karachi, Lahore, Faisala ...

, and in the same match also took what was to be his best bowling figures, 4/35 from seven overs. In the other one-day matches, Haroon was less successful, and in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, he failed to score a single half-century from his five matches, as well as taking only three wickets. During the 2001–02 season, he played only once for Sheikhupura, against

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

in the Quaid-e-Azam, which was his final high-level competitive match. Haroon had spent the 2001 English season playing club cricket for

Market Deeping Market Deeping is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, on the north bank of the River Welland and the A15 road. The population of the town at the 2011 census was 6,008. History The town's mark ...

in the

Lincolnshire Premier League The Lincolnshire Premier League (referred to in some sources as Lincolnshire County Board Premier League and Lincolnshire Cricket Board Premier League) is the top level of competition for club cricket in Lincolnshire, England. The league was c ...

, and remained with the club through to the end of the 2006 season. After that, from 2007 to 2011, he switched to

Nassington Nassington is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 670 people, increasing to 827 at the 2011 Census The River Nene runs along the eastern side of the parish. The ...

, a club in the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire League. After 2011 Haroon joined Ramsey Cricket Club and was a massive influence with both coaching and playing until his departure to coach Norway in 2014. Haroon played for Falken Cricket klubb Norwegian League in season 2015/16 as an allrounder.

Coaching career

While still playing club cricket, Haroon began to train as a coach, eventually becoming the first person from the Subcontinent to gain a level-4 qualification from the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and ...

(ECB). In early 2014, he was appointed head coach of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

for an initial four-month term, which included the 2014

ICC European T20 Championship The European Cricket Championship was a group of various tournaments in which national cricket sides throughout Europe competed. The competition was designed to encourage and develop the best players in countries where cricket was not a major sp ...

Division Two tournament. Haroon had his contract extended after the team won that tournament, and has since coached the team at the 2015 European Division One and the 2015 World Cricket League Division Six tournaments. He has also been involved in coaching the national under-19 side, organising a tour of Lincolnshire during the 2014 season using the connections from his playing career."Norway under-19 cricket team enjoy tour of Lincolnshire"
– ''Lincolnshire Echo''. Retrieved 2 September 2015.

References

External links

a
Cricket Archive
a
ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haroon, Muhammad 1968 births Living people Norway in international cricket Lahore Division cricketers Pakistani cricket coaches Pakistani cricketers Pakistani expatriate sportspeople in Norway Pakistani expatriate sportspeople in England Cricketers from Sheikhupura Sheikhupura cricketers Coaches of national cricket teams Expatriate sports coaches